


A New Beginning

by Lobotomite



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M, Reconciliation, feat matchmaker Liv
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-19
Updated: 2018-01-19
Packaged: 2019-03-06 13:23:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13412157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lobotomite/pseuds/Lobotomite
Summary: Aaron gave up on safe, comfortable and the happiest he'd been in a long time, for a man in crisis who he'd never been able to turn away from. Two years on, and all he's got to show for it are new emotional scars and an empty bed to come home to. But it looks like he might get another in a long line of second chances, and this time he's ready to fight for it.





	A New Beginning

Aaron's knuckles are white on the steering wheel, and it's all he can do to keep to some semblance of a speed limit. He needs to be with Liv, but the last thing she needs is for him to join her in the hospital after crashing his car.

_She's fine_ , he tells himself firmly, gunning through the last of the country roads and having to slow down as he joins actual traffic, tapping his thumb nervously on the wheel. _Gabby would have called again if something was really wrong, she's fine._

He just can't help replaying that call over and over in his head, can't help but latch onto the way Gabby's voice had wobbled when she'd said that Liv was _okay, she's just broken her arm I think but she's fine_ , _we just thought you should know –_ but she's just worried that Liv's in pain, he reminds himself firmly, almost convincing himself.

He manages to refrain himself from bolting through the hospital doors when he finally gets there and finds a park, but he does make his way through the hospital at a half jog, only slowing down when he finds his way to A&E and finally sees Liv. She's stretched out on the bed in a hospital gown, which makes his stomach clench, her arm swaddled in plaster up to the elbow, but she's talking and laughing with Gabby and she lights up when she sees him coming towards her.

"Liv," he gasps, "Ar-"

"I'm fine," she cuts in, rolling her eyes as if Aaron is unreasonable for being concerned after finding out she was in the hospital after _crashing a quad bike._ "It's just a broken arm."

"And a broken rib," Gabby adds reprovingly, and Liv rolls her eyes again.

"Barely," she grumbles. "Anyway, I'm fine. Just need a final okay from the good doctor and then we're good to go."

He really, really does not like the way her eyes are gleaming right now, or the way both her and Gabby are suddenly wearing too-innocent smiles, but before he can do more than narrow his eyes at them said "good doctor" is clearing his throat to get their attention and Aaron is all too aware of what those looks are for.

"Uh, hi, Aaron," Alex says, when Aaron turns to look at him, and Aaron barely manages to get a greeting out from his suddenly bone-dry mouth, heart thumping in his chest. He shouldn't be surprised to see Alex here, not really, he knows this is where Alex works; but he's been so dedicated to not letting himself think of the "could-have-been"s that he just hadn't let himself consider the possibility that he'd be bumping into his ex.

He looks good. He looks really, really, good, freakishly tall as ever and warm brown eyes just as kind and gentle as he remembered.

"-have come back clear," Alex is saying, when Aaron manages to stop himself from being embarrassingly obvious and actually tunes in. "So, you're good to go for now – just take it easy, don't put any unneeded stress on that rib, and we'll set up a follow up appointment to see how everything is getting on, okay?"

"Okay," Liv says, her best 'I'm an angel with zero ulterior motives' face on, that quickly turns into a murderous scowl when Alex and Aaron give each other awkward nods and goodbyes and Alex walks away. " _Aaron_ ," she hisses, "what are you doing!? Go and get his number back! Give him yours! This is your perfect chance!" Even Gabby is giving him a judgemental look, and he scowls right back.

"I'm not going to go make an ass of myself and put him in an uncomfortable situation, Liv," he says. "We've been over for two years, and I didn't treat him how I should've. He won't want to know."

"Of _course_ he will. He's not over you," she says, so confident you'd think it was a fact and not her very biased opinion, Gabby nodding along beside her. "You should've seen him before you got here, trying to ask about you without being obvious. You're a dorky match made in heaven."

"He was just being polite, Liv," he says, pointedly ignoring the dorky comment.

"He wasn't," she insists. "Come on, Aaron, he really liked you, and I know you really liked him. All of us did. Don't you want to give it a chance without Robert lurking around, ready to ruin it?"

"It's not about what _I_ want, Liv," he says tiredly, and she shakes her head.

"Just talk to him Aaron. You won't know if you don't ask, right? Or do you want me to hop on another quad bike and get us both here again as many times as it takes for you to talk to him?" she threatens, and Aaron sighs.

"Alright, alright, fine, get ready to go and I'll be back in a minute," he says, spotting Alex by himself flipping through some files. He'd like to say he was only doing this because Liv was bullying him into it, but... she's not wrong. He can't count the amount of times he's laid awake in an empty bed wishing he'd been strong enough to turn away from Robert, from the choking feeling of being a burden on Alex mixing with the toxic conviction that he owed Robert, and fought to keep Alex. He doesn't have high hopes for a positive outcome - _"I'd really like to still be friends," he'd said, painfully aware of the ridiculous cliche but meaning it more than anything._

_"I can't," Alex had replied quietly, voice strained. "I can't... I can't stop you, but I can't watch you do this to yourself, either. I'm sorry, Aaron." And then he'd been gone –_ but he couldn't look at himself in the mirror if he just passed up this chance, either.

Alex is concentrating on the charts enough that he doesn't notice Aaron approaching – _he's just pretending and hoping you get the hint_ , his mind insists, and he has to firmly shut that train of thought down before he chickens out and flees home – so he hovers awkwardly and then clears his throat, trying to figure out if he should be reassured or not by the face Alex makes when he sees who it is.

"Hey, Alex," he starts, heart in his throat, before he realises with horror that he has no idea what on earth he's going to say. "I, um, I was... how have you been?" _How have you been!?_ he repeats to himself, wishing he could just sink into the ground and disappear. _Could you have said anything more useless?_

"I... yeah, I've been good," Alex replies, sounding – not upset to be talking to him, but slightly wary. "How have you been? How's..." he trails off and his face twists, clearly still not fond of the idea of Robert.

"I've been good. Robert... Honestly, I don't know. I haven't seen him for... god, a year, probably. Conning his way into some cushy job, knowing him," he says, relieved at the way he can say that and have it be true, have it twinge instead of ache the way it had in the immediate aftermath of Robert leaving.

"Oh," Alex says, clearly trying not to be too obviously happy. "You two are over, then?"

"Yeah. You were right – well. Everybody was. Didn't even last three months before he decided he couldn't deal with us anymore and fucked off."

Alex's face is the picture of sympathy, no hint of 'I told you so' when he says, with all genuinity, that he's sorry, and Aaron can't believe he ever got a chance with him, let alone that he let him go in the first place.

"Listen, Alex, I know you have work to do so I don't want to keep you I just. Um. I was just wondering if... if maybe we could try again? To be friends, I mean, I know that I don't – that I lost my chance but. I miss you." Alex looks at him for a long moment, sending Aaron's heart into overdrive as his brain decides to inform him of all the ways Alex is about to tell him to go to hell, but then.

"I've missed you too," he says softly, sincerely. Aaron can't hold back a beaming grin, light-headed with relief, and Alex matches it, smile bright and easy and sorely missed. "Um, give me your phone and I'll put my number in, okay?"

Aaron hands it over, almost dropping it when he pulls it out of his pocket he's so nervous, and Alex taps in his number before handing it back. "I get off work at six today, so... give me a ring tonight, if you want?"

"Yeah, I will," he agrees, nervous but pleased. "I'll, um, I'll let you get back to saving lives and all that but, yeah, I'll call you," he says, giving an unsure half wave that Alex just as awkwardly returns, both of them letting out an amused huff of laughter as Aaron scurries back to a triumphant looking Liv.

"I told you!" She crows when he gets there.

"I thought I told you to be ready," he grumbles, aware of his ears burning red, and she just laughs and gets ready to go.

 

* * *

 

_He wouldn't have said it if he didn't want you to ring_.

He's been telling himself that for half an hour already, hovering his finger over the call button and then putting his phone to sleep over and over again. He knows that, really; he's just so terrified of fucking this up again that he can't bring himself to actually call and give himself the chance to say something stupid. But Alex spent their whole relationship putting himself out there, he put himself out there today just by bringing up a call first, so he finally forces himself to press down and call him.

He might as well have dunked himself in ice water, chest abruptly tight and cold and fear trickling down his spine, but all of that melts away as soon as Alex picks up and says his name, the happiness in his voice melting the terror and leaving him keyed up and nervous, but happy.

They end up talking for a while, and he doesn't even put his foot in it in any big way, he doesn't think. Alex asks about Robert, of course he does, but Aaron thinks he does a good job of not sounding too bitter at his abandonment of him, of his son, of the family they were trying to cobble together. His voice gets a bit wobbly, talking about Seb; he was only in the boy's life for a few months, but it's still strange sometimes to see him about the village with Bex or Vic, knowing that despite months of sleepless nights and dirty nappies and mess _everywhere_ Sebastian is as good as a stranger to him.

Alex is sympathetic and understanding, more understanding than has to be considering this is one of the reasons Aaron left, so he quickly moves the conversation on, onto what him and Liv and Gerry have been doing ("Gerry's still there, then," Alex says, amused, and Aaron snorts. "Yeah, can't get rid of him. He's like a stray cat you can't bear to turf out on his own"), onto what Alex himself has been doing.

He has no right to feel a twinge every time Alex mentions a boyfriend, but he does anyway, though he makes sure to do his best not to let on to Alex that he does, and he has no right to be so pleased that Alex is, it turns out, currently very much single, but he is, anyway.

It's nice, just talking to Alex again, hearing stories from A&E and what he's been doing. It would be even nicer if they could do this face to face. So he resolves to put himself out there for Alex again, and invites him out for drinks on the weekend.

"Just if you want, of course, but I was thinking we could go out? Have a few drinks at Bar West and catch up?" He'd offered Bar West as the destination in equal parts because it's his go-to and because he wants to take Alex somewhere he's always felt comfortable, but he realises belatedly that it might be awkward for Alex to go somewhere Aaron is familiar with but he isn't, that maybe he'd want to go somewhere more neutral, so he backpedals ungracefully. "Or, I mean, it can be anywhere, I was just – it was just a suggestion, where ever you want to go is fine with me."

"No, that... that sounds good. I'd like that."

"Right!" Aaron manages through the smile threatening to split his face in half. "It's a date, then." He wants to kick himself as soon as the words are out of his mouth, starting to splutter a clarification, when Alex's smooth voice cuts in.

"It's a date," he agrees, and Aaron swears his heart stops in the face of the overwhelming delight flooding him. He barely manages to get through the rest of the conversation, agreeing to a time, and when he hangs up all he can do is bounce on the balls of his feet, chest so full of happiness it feels tight.

Maybe he has another shot at happiness, after all.


End file.
